Speaking of old interviews/projects - I would love to find out more about MAGIC BULLETS (proposed web serial with Brian Wood?) and STATION? Morphed into something else? or just never came together (future projects possibly?) The descriptions on those two had really intrigued me...

Glancing through my old Wizard magazines as I threw them away I came across an interview from 2001 wherein you mention some books you were working on. Can you tell us what happened to "Black Horses" with John Paul Leon and/or "Morning Dragons" with Steve Lieber? Those are both artists I'd really like to see you collaborate with.

Speaking of old interviews/projects - I would love to find out more about MAGIC BULLETS (proposed web serial with Brian Wood?) and STATION? Morphed into something else? or just never came together

Time and circumstances killed pretty much all these -- these projects all coincide with the beginning of the health problems that plagued me over much of the decade. I did start to move on MORNING DRAGONS in 2008 -- and then my backups and computer were fried, so I don't even have the original synopsis any more...

When approaching a movie treatment of a comic book or novel, do you feel it's best to:

a) Take the approach of David Lynch's /Dune/ or /Wanted/, and bash the material around to better fit the cinematic media, orb) Take the approach of /Watchmen/ and stick extremely close to the material, orc) Take the approach of most of the Marvel movies, or the Chrisopher Reeves /Superman/ and just sort of riff on the established characters, ord) Have no general approach, depends on the material in question.

(There is a difference between A and C, but I'll be damned if I can phrase it better).

You've written stuff that's been included in Dead Space, and before that you worked on Hostile Waters and Cold Winter. How did your work take place for these games : did you write things and give them to the studio in the prototyping/preproduction phase and then let them do their stuff or was it a more involved process, with discussions with the team, etc. ?

Would you be interested in writing other things for videogames in the future ?

As a game developer, I know that people working on the scenarios are not always the best available (hell, sometimes they're not even really writers but just some designers/directors who think they can do anything :) ), but there are more and more studios hiring people who can actually write things, like you. And it can be a very good thing, especially when the writers and the team really do work with each other. I'd definitely like to see more of that (some teams don't need this kind of input of course, but it could be an improvement for many games).

That old Lazarus Churchyard story where he's talking to the dead girl on the roof. What's that all about? Is it just just a dark little story that emphasizes how alone he is, or is there something I missed. Why, if I remember correctly, was she sitting in a pool of blood? It's been a long time since I've read it, not sure where my GN went to.

Are you doing anything to preserve evidence of your working process—drafts, manuscripts, letters, etc. for future generations to study? When I read about how much you lost when one hard disk died I worry that we might never see annotated editions of the work of authors like you who work digitally and don’t have an assistant to print stuff out and box it up.

Do you believe that there is life on other planets, or do you feel that the Rare Earth hypothesis holds more weight?

Life on other planets? Certainly. Lots of it? I suspect not. Within that set: lots of sentient life? I suspect not, as per Fermi and Rare Earth. The Rare Earth Hypothesis is way too restrictive and falls victim to weak thinking at too many points -- but I personally think that people are much too dismissive of radiation as a limiter on the expansion of life.

Not that we'll ever find out, because no-one gives a shit about human spaceflight or exotic propulsion.

That old Lazarus Churchyard story where he's talking to the dead girl on the roof. What's that all about? Is it just just a dark little story that emphasizes how alone he is, or is there something I missed. Why, if I remember correctly, was she sitting in a pool of blood?

Well, perhaps it helps to point out that she wasn't sitting in a pool of blood at the start of the story, and can be presumed to be alive at that point.

You've written stuff that's been included in Dead Space, and before that you worked on Hostile Waters and Cold Winter. How did your work take place for these games : did you write things and give them to the studio in the prototyping/preproduction phase and then let them do their stuff or was it a more involved process, with discussions with the team, etc. ?

In all instances, they came to me with the idea of the story, with the game itself already built to some degree, and it was up to me to write the story of the game, break down its acts and mission goals, create characters, write dialogue, etc. In the case of DEAD SPACE, after I was allowed to mention in public that I'd worked on the game, a producer arranged a special media interview to explain that everything I did was pretty much thrown out.

Not that I had a huge problem with them throwing my stuff out -- I even introduced them to Antony Johnston, who I believe did the final pass on all the game writing.

But it does illustrate the contempt the games world has for the writer -- that they actually took time to make sure everyone knew a writer had his work thrown out.

Would you be interested in writing other things for videogames in the future ?

My agent is under the following instruction: I'll now only work on videogames if I'm signed on as a producer.

But it does illustrate the contempt the games world has for the writer -- that they actually took time to make sure everyone knew a writer had his work thrown out.

This makes me incredibly sad. We (as in western games developers) really need to sort out our approach to the whole writing side of the craft if we're ever going to improve beyond what we're seeing. At least the Japanese games developers seem to treat their writers a little better.

Here's something I've always meant to ask (actually for all I know, I have. My memory is horrible these days), but I'm pretty sure I haven't yet.

You've always come across as one of the most professional people in…well, just about any industry. Not just in your interviews, but also in off-the-cuff comments here, for example. You take accountability; if you have personal grudges, they don't really surface; etc. Is that kind of behavior something you are consciously aware of and deliberate? Or is it just part of your general upbringing?